#magicmetslogic

[fontasticcrablettes]

What is the list of nominations at so far for the shitty parents tournament?

So far we've got:

Bart (Phantasia)

Shizel (Eternia)

Kratos or Anna (Symphonia)

Mylene Wilder (Symphonia)

Virginia (Symphonia)

Dirk (Symphonia)

Will (Legendia)

Arnold Alcott (Legendia)

Solon (Legendia)

Duke Fabre or Suzanne Fabre (Abyss)

King Ingobert (Abyss)

Largo (Abyss)

Van Grants (Abyss)

Oliver or Pamela Tatlin (Abyss)

Aston and Kerri Lhant (Graces)

Garrett Oswell (Graces)

Derrick or Ellen Mathis (Xillia)

Jiao (Xillia)

Ludger (X2)

Victor (X2)

Bisley (X2)

Zenrus (Zestiria)

Zephry (Arise)

Stahn and Rutee (Destiny)

Gall (Hearts)

Hugo Gilchrist (Destiny)

Artorius (Berseria)

Melchior (Berseria

Eugene (Rebirth)

Brute Lualdi (DotNW)

Vincent Bridges (Tempest)

And there's one slot left. Who should fill it? I took Leia's parents off this list because while they have defined characterization, they're awesome and won't win anyway. I also removed Dorr, who has questionable morals but is an NPC parent of an NPC, so less relevant. I removed Hermes, because while he appears in side material, he doesn't appear in the actual game and there is nothing we know about his parenting in particular to get upset about.

Any of those could be added back in, or someone else. Emeraude? Cornell? Uncle Alba?

[daggeck]

(insert infinity sign here, i dont have it on my keyboard)

"I use to be afraid of showing who I was inside; more than a prisoner, a victim trapped in my own life"

-Calling by VAMPS

[polwigle]

hello and welcome to another episode of Shi Has Strong Opinions on Niche Canon with Citable Sources, this time focusing on something that technically isn't canon one way or the other — my preferred fan-transliterated name for Raven's hometown in Tales of Vesperia, which is never referred to by name in any officially translated material.

anyway it's spelled Pharihyde and in this essay I will die on this hill

Context

In case you clicked the read-more with no stake in this game just because you want to see me being pedantic, let me recap the relevant facts of the argument:

Raven's backstory is never fully explained in the base game, but it was elaborated on in official side materials. The same story, titled 虚空の仮面 (Kokuu no Kamen, commonly translated as Empty Mask), was released in multiple formats: light novel[1], manga[2], and drama CD[3]. None of these have ever been officially translated, but fans have made their own attempts at each over the years.

The town in question here does not appear in the original game, due to having been obliterated during the prequel events. It's also never mentioned by name in the drama CD, leaving only two sources for a name: the light novel and the manga.

Officially, it is named ファリハイド (Farihaido).

The first translation the English-speaking fandom ever saw of any Kokuu no Kamen material was when one fan (whose identity was regrettably lost to time) took a stab at summarizing the light novels, not long after they were first published back in 2010. This fan transliterated the town's name as Pharihyde.

Tumblr user dokidokimaster was commissioned to finally translate the manga in 2015. In this translation, the town was spelled Farryheid.

By the time the manga was being translated, the web page that hosted the light novel summary had tragically gone down. Luckily, I was active enough in the fandom at the time to have had the link to the light novel bookmarked, so I was able to find an archive via the blessed Wayback Machine, but I can't fault dokidokimaster for the inconsistencies.

tl;dr of section: OG town name is ファリハイド; LN calls it Pharihyde; manga calls it Farryheid. Rest of essay is about why me preferring the name that came first isn't just me being a cranky fandom elder I swear

It's About The World It's In

In the world of Terca Lumireis, on the continent of Ilyccia, somewhere far from the capital city, Zaphias, there was once a town called... Farryheid? No, Pharihyde. The latter fits better with the precedents set by the official names around it, and I will literally break it down letter by differing letter to prove it!

'Ph' vs 'F'

Among officially transliterated locations and other "made-up" names in Tales of Vesperia, there are 3 that include 'ph' to represent an 'f' sound (Zaphias, Zopheir, Phaeroh). Only a single name uses an actual 'f' for that sound (Ghasfarost), and it also still has an 'h' as the second letter in the word.

Single vs. Double 'R'

After a ctrl+F pass through the entire list of location names in this game[4], not a single one contains the substring 'rr'. Only one R at a time in Terca Lumireis!

Vowel Choice and Lexical Stress

So, English has this neat little feature where some syllables in a word get more emphasis than others! And that plays heavily into this section, because 'i' and 'y' can sound identical when using 'y' as a vowel, but the existing place names stress them differently.

Now, as the Drama CD doesn't give us a spoken example of ファリハイド to work from (and Japanese doesn't do stress the way English does anyway), where the stress goes in either "Pharihyde" or "Farryheid" is technically unconfirmed... But my default reading is with primary stress on the first syllable, and secondary stress on the last (FAR-ee-hide).

In the precedent-setting place names, based on the English dub of the 360 version*, a lone 'i' is seen unstressed in at least 16 distinct names, including the ones I referenced in my intro scene-setting sentence (ZA-phi-as, TER-ca LU-mi-reis). To my knowledge, lone 'i' is never pronounced with stress in dialogue (and potentially appears only once, in the plot-irrelevant Niffel Lake).

In contrast, whenever 'y' is used as any kind of vowel, it always gets at least secondary stress, as in Hypionia (high-pee-O-nee-ah) and Rhybgaro (RIB-ga-ro). Thus, "Pharihyde" using an 'i' for the middle vowel and a 'y' for the last one lines up with established precedent.

Also, the double vowel 'ei' is consistently and exclusively used to represent an 'ay' sound, as in "day", not as in "hide"! Deidon Hold, Keiv Moc, and again Zopheir and Terca Lumireis — none of these 'ei's sound the way "Farryheid" wants you to pronounce it!

Silent 'e'

I did say I'd break down every different letter between "Pharihyde" and "Farryheid", but this last one's not for flavour, it's just to get the 'y' to act as the right kind of vowel sound. Just a normal feature of English pronunciation rules here (though not entirely without precedent: Halure, Relewiese, Laulyse). Sorry to go out with a whimper ^^;;

Conclusion

The base content of Tales of Vesperia sets up some implied rules about how its made-up-for-the-game words function. "Farryheid" may be a perfectly reasonable transliteration of ファリハイド in a vacuum, but "Pharihyde" follows the rules of the setting, literally to the letter!

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

*Footnote about the pronunciation thing: the new voice lines added in the Definitive Edition of the game pronounce some place names inconsistently. I can only assume that by the time they recorded the new lines, a decade after the original ones, they forgot how some pronunciations worked and didn't check their old work... :/

References

(bc it's not an essay without citations!)

[1] Light novel summary (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/20110806003312/http://www.fancomic.com:80/vesperia/resources/raven/emptymask.htm [2] Manga translation: https://dokidokimaster.tumblr.com/tagged/kokuu+no+kamen/chrono [3] Drama CD translation, for completion's sake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHEDJ_D4tyI [4] List of in-game place names: https://hyouta.com/vesperia/?version=pc&locale=eng&compare=2&section=locations

[sevi007]

Tales of the Abyss playthrough, the partest of the 26th or something

Look I gotta make this a little engaging somehow when I push everything under the cut

What a way to wake up! Well I guess Luke was not really asleep per se, he was piggy-backing in Asch's body, so like. He is still right there in the adrenaline-rush

*whisper* Omg give me a HD anime version of this to put as a wallpaper this is pretty

Argh. I know Luke is as pushy as always, but she got a point, I was in there right along with him about to go "hurry hurry!" - but I guess we need a plan first XD

Where's the next elevator to the Outer Lands for example?

Mep. Let me hug the boy please. Guy is coming for you Luke! And - now that I think about it, Tear stayed here!

(She still got a point, sadly. He does not really think on his own. Can't blame him, but it's true.)

Oh wait luke is having an epiphany I will shut up

THE WAY I GASPED - okay deep breath, deep breath. Did you know, I didn't have any idea why there were pictures of long-haired AND short-haired Luke on the internet? Even in the opening? I assumed he would get a makeover, maybe to separate himself from Asch yea, but didn't know when or why.

This is SUCH a great reason!

Wait let me - I'm gonna nerd out here for a bit, and I don't know how right I am with this, but I think in more modern Japanese culture, hair cutting is a symbol of turning over a new leaf, leaving the past being or something like that. And even if I remember that wrong, it still shows that Luke wants to step out of the shadow of what he was meant to be a - a mere replica of Luke / Asch fon fabre - and his own person. Such a great way to show that!

As for the conversation. It might seem like Tear is being harsh here, and I did say "OUCH" a few times over the dialogue because it just - is a big ouchy - but she is doing the right thing here. She is facing Luke in a way he has to get used to a bit, because people won't instantly trust him anymore, they will question him, he has to stand firm and resolute and use his head from now on! She is pointing out very important things he sooner or later will have to work through and work with, and it is a good thing she is there to teach him this. Also, she does recognize that he is trying and taking important steps - look at the face she makes after the haircut - and she does not want him to suffer, that's why she is rather cold when she points out that he talks about dying too easily, because she does not want him to!

HAH my boy is growing so quickly now. I'm a proud mom now.

Also we really need to clean that hair length up, it looks a bit silly right now XD

Gonna cut this short before tumblr can go harping on me about the maximal number of pictures per post -

@magicmetslogic

@ahsokaisawesome

[desfraisespartout]

Quick doodle for my favorite girls

@magicmetslogic thank.you for the inspiration

[hannyboop]

The bad art train continues @magicmetslogic

[lyerra]

sooo uuuh @merddynaladar and @magicmetslogic said they wanted to know what i've come up with so far with my tales of vesperia ghost trick au... honestly i dont think i'll turn it into a fic but it was sorta fun coming up with all these ideas soooo... here they are!!

The setting is in the late 2000s, in Pornic, which is a coastal town in France. Yuri is a café owner while Flynn is a young police commissioner/police school student. Both of them are childhood friends and see each other as family (since none of them have surviving family members).

As Yuri is closing shop at night, he gets mysteriously assassinated in his own café by a hitman and... wakes up as a ghost, as he sees his killer holding an unknown pink-haired girl at gunpoint.

Another ghost(?) named Judith appears and explains to Yuri that while he is dead, he gained powers that he can use to save the girl from meeting the same fate, as well as learn the truth behind his death; however, he will only have one night before he disappears. After he saves her, the girl introduces herself as Estelle and tells Yuri that she is a friend of Flynn's, and that something has seemingly happened to their common friend.

I don't have 100% of the details about what happens next, but here is a brief summary of the main events of each chapter.

Chapter 2: Very similar to GT's actual chapter two, Yuri goes to check on his adopted brother Karol, and finds him and Repede in trouble. He asks Repede to look after Karol, and returns to Estelle.

Chapter 3: Estelle is somehow suspected of Yuri's murder and decides to make a run for it (since Yuri only has tonight and stuff)

Chapter 4: Rita, Estelle's roommate, gets reluctantly involved in this mess. The girls (and Yuri) decide to look for clues at Flynn's place. On the way, they go through a construction site to avoid suspicious people (like the one who killed Yuri) and with Yuri's help, manage to survive weirdly disfunctioning electronical equipment.

Chapter 5: We learn that Estelle met Flynn through her mother. Estelle's mother, recently deceased, was a scientist, and she was apparently working on a secret project with Flynn. We are also introduced to Raven, a shady police officer who offers information about a case Flynn was working on before his disappearance: the case of the manipulator, someone who is able to manipulate others and uses those powers to commit crimes. Also Rita dies in this chapter (so Yuri can save her and they can actually talk without having to go through Estelle lol)

Chapter 6: Through a bracelet that Estelle's mother gave her, Rita learns about a mysterious meteorite called Brave Vesperia, and that Flynn is linked to it somehow. Meanwhile, Raven tells the group about Alexei, a powerful government official who could be behind Yuri's death and Flynn's disappearance. Judith warns Yuri that Raven is not to be trusted.

Chapter 7: In this chapter, Repede returns as a ghost to help the group. Moreover, Rita figures out that the thing Estelle's mother studied were ghost powers like the ones Yuri has; only her subject was Flynn, who was apparently able to manipulate people and objects. This description sounds awfully like the criminal discribed by Raven, which comes as a huge shock to Yuri and Estelle.

Chapter 8: Raven betrays the group and gets Estelle's bracelet to Alexei. However, Alexei manages to also capture Rita who seemed to understand the secrets of the meteorite better than his own men. Raven, who did not intend to get a 15 year old girl kidnapped, decides to help the group by telling them the truth: Alexei was the bad guy and he manipulated Flynn into a deal. Using this deal, he turned Raven into a ghost and made him the manipulator. Alexei is now escaping with Flynn and Rita in a submarine, and Raven manages to send Yuri, Estelle and Repede there.

Chapter 9: Alexei escapes and this becomes very similar to the og game: Yuri and Repede have to help Estelle carry an unconscious Rita to safety while in a sinking submarine. They are eventually saved by Flynn!

Chapter 10: This is my favourite part haha. Yuri, Flynn and Estelle have a heart to heart. Yuri especially confronts Flynn on all the secrets he kept (he literally died and became a ghost and hid it from him for like, an entire year).

Wait, what's going on? Basically, Flynn died about a year ago in an incident that left him with a meteorite stuck inside his body, turning him into a ghost. His body is now invulnerable but also he's dead. He possesses his own corpse and finds Estelle's mother who studies him and tries to free him from his condition. After she dies, Alexei is charged with taking her research for the government. He finds out about the powers of the dead and Flynn and he erases the info about Flynn but stuff about the meteorite soon becomes known all around the world. Alexei then strikes a deal with Flynn, telling him he will try to finish Estelle's mother work if Flynn helps him catch criminals and stuff. Alexei's goal, however, is to steal the fragment of meteorite inside Flynn's body. Flynn agrees (Alexei doesn't make him do anything too bad anyways or he wouldnt have accepted). During one of Flynn's missions, Alexei kills Raven close to Flynn's body (and the meteorite) and witnesses for himself Raven becoming a ghost. His plan for this night was to convince Flynn to leave the country immediately because governments had learned of his existence through a submarine. The plan was to drop Flynn's "soul" in the abyssal plains where there were no cores he could possess to escape and run away with his body (and the meteorite).

Chapter 10 (part 2): So yeah they explain what's going on and they realize that Estelle and Rita are going to die and maybe Estelle manages to get the boys to say some touching last words or something... And then Rita wakes up and comes up with a way for the ghosts to escape and get help through a torpedo.

Chapter 11: As they escape, Flynn, Yuri and Repede find Flynn's dead body, without the meteorite that was stolen by Alexei. They realize that now that Flynn's body is not constantly going between life and death, Yuri and Repede can reverse his death and alter the timeline... Which they do :D Also Judith reveals she was like, the spirit of Brave Vesperia or something

Chapter 12: Epilogue!!! The group is having a party at Yuri's café :D Only Yuri, Flynn and Repede remember, and Flynn introduces Estelle and Yuri, but Estelle remembers a little bit when she sees him and they tell each other how happy they are and stuff,, Alexei never got to learn about the powers of the dead and eventually was arrested by Flynn for other corrupted activities. Raven never died, Flynn and Yuri never died either, and they adopted a cute little kitten named Sissel :)

So yeah that was long. Don't hesitate to ask!! I have a lot of details that I havent written down here so if you're interested in this AU I'd be happy to expand on whatever you want!!!

[hungrydolphin91]

@magicmetslogic well since you asked so nicely ^^ I have to warn you though, it's mostly just a messy outline:

Tales of Vesperia and Evasive Language:

A while back I was feeling nostalgic and started watching an old stream archive of Vesperia Definitive Edition from back when that came out out, and I noticed how the three guys playing it for the first time didn’t always understand what was happening in a scene until halfway through it because the characters were speaking evasively. The more I noticed it, the more I realized just how often Vesperia in particular uses this type of language to add drama and depth to the story and characters, and even support the game’s themes of justice in regards to compliance versus disobedience. Specifically, that evasive language is used in this game to get around laws, for better or for worse, and even by characters that are otherwise lawful (looking at you, Flynn).

I’m not talking about lying or deceptive language, but more of a roundabout, masked language. The characters in this game tell half-truths or speak about a subject without ever saying directly what they mean, but leave enough context for the others to figure it out. Sometimes the "others" refers to other characters, but it can also mean only the audience, creating drama and foreshadowing. For example, lines like Yuri’s ominous “He will get what he deserves” in Capua Torim after Cumore escapes or Judith promise “I will uphold the guild’s laws. But in my own way,” are not lies, but they’re certainly dodging the character’s true intentions– imagine if they had just said “I’m going to murder that guy” or “My reasons for destroying blastia are actually good, but society isn’t ready for that conversation yet.” These examples, though, are more like writing tools meant to be understood by only the audience to keep them curious rather than covertly communicating with another character. Most of the evasive language is used in a less meta context.

The characters most notable for using this language are Yuri and Judith as mentioned before, but also Flynn, Rita, and Raven. Conversations between these characters often require a lot of reading between the lines, like Yuri and Flynn’s early arguments and Yuri and Judith’s one-on-one nighttime chats. The game even seems to encourage the player to look closely at their lines by calling out their evasive personalities, like Estelle saying several times that “Yuri isn’t very good at expressing his feelings” or Judith claiming she’s “not very good at lying” when they actually are, just in a more coded way.

Sometimes they speak this way to protect a secret, like Judith’s reasons for destroying blastia

Judith doesn’t REALLY lie, she just dodges targeted subjects. In a way she’s even more suspicious than Raven, but I think maybe her charisma helps keep the party (minus Yuri, who knows her background) from suspecting her to be up to something

Other times they talk like this to conceal their own feelings, like Yuri, Rita, and sometimes Flynn. Eg. Yuri’s “Catch up to him? Easy for him to say” or Rita’s tsundere-isms to hide that she just wants to travel more/be with Estelle

And of course there’s Raven, hiding his assigned agenda with evasive language but usually doing such a poor job of it that every party member finds him suspicious as hell. Once he’s actually in the party he straight up lies convincingly rather than beating around the bush

(Though part of his successful deception may rely on him being SO suspicious that he couldn't ACTUALLY be as sus as he seems 😅)

But the most prominent example of evasive language being used to advance the themes of the story is the frequent fluctuation between following the letter of the law vs the spirit of the law, used as both constraints and loopholes, by parties under both the Empire and the Guilds. (Eg. Flynn's 'If I don't return you'll have to take my place' vs. Karol's 'everyone in the guild should be punished because technically we're all kinda responsible' etc.)

The streamers and I both were relishing that scene in Capua Nor where Yuri’s party agrees to break the law and sneak into Ragou’s manor in order to give Flynn’s unit the authority to enter under emergency protocol because all of this is established in evasive language-- no one is admitting to the plan verbally but it's established anyway via loopholes and coincidences. It’s definitely illegal by Imperial law, the Knights shouldn’t be collaborating with a known criminal in order to achieve their ends, but since their enemy (also under the Empire) has twisted the laws to suit him perfectly, they all have to bend the rules a little to enforce justice. This ties in marvelously with the themes of the game, that sometimes in order to stop corruption you have to resort to some underhanded methods yourself, yet also exemplifies how this corruption happens in the first place, with Ragou only being able to run his wicked schemes because he has the authority to go above the law.

The guilds actually operate under the same principles as the Empire, maybe even more so. A guild’s laws are its pride, as karol says, and this is shown to be true with how the Don was executed because “eye for an eye” is ingrained in guild law. But shortly after Brave Vesperia is formed, they’re already looking for loopholes to do things like take on more than one job. The scene at the Atherum employs more of that evasive language, this time with Rita deciding to deliver the clear ciel crystal for Estelle’s sake since the guild can’t take another job. 

It’s just interesting to me how quickly they’ve all started finding loopholes to their own rules even though creating their own guild outside of the Empire's laws was so important to them. What they’re doing isn’t wrong or underhanded, but it is illegal, and thus they resort to hypothetical suggestions and coincidences.

[ormspryde]

I've always kinda liked soulmate AUs but I've never really wanted to write one until @magicmetslogic said something about Raven/Yeager soulmate AU and now I'm obsessed lol (okay look I've been sobbing over these gay babies for days now hush) (BUT THEY'RE SO SWEET)

So yeah, this is them. Yeager's about seven in this, and Raven's about five. (I write Raven as trans, so that's why he's in a dress) (also he's not a ghost that's a soulmate thing lol)

[ID: A digital drawing of two children, one blue and transparent, the other solid. Both are crouched on a forest floor together; the solid child is seen from the back, and he's dressed in a yellow shirt with green pants and his hair gathered in a tail with a bow in the back. The transparent child has pigtails and is wearing a dress - he has his face buried in his arms. /ID]

[magicmetslogic]

Oh, also

Growing Pains Sequel Fic Be Upon Ye!

So THIS fic is set after @skywardheroine and I's OTHER fic called Growing Pains, which was all about Raven and Karol addressing their familial feelings over the course of an action-packed, joke filled adventure through a monster cave system!

In THIS fic, however, they've since been established as a family and now they're enjoying their life together! They're finishing up a pirate adventure with patty together! They're having a great time!

And then Raven gets pneumonia. Yeah, sick-fic time.

Anyway, enjoy!

[lowtarei]

@magicmetslogic asked:

Duke and alexei for the ask game! And maybe duke and flynn....and of course, some Raven, mayhaps with Estelle

OH BOY DO I HAVE LOTS OF HCS FOR THESE TWO!! [vespy spoilers ahead // Raven & Estelle here]

so personally, I don't think they'd ever crossed paths or otherwise had any connection before the war (with Alexei having spent pretty much his whole adult life climbing the ranks as a soldier, while Duke was effectively raised by Elucifur & even before that I imagine he had a very isolated early childhood on account of him being so different) but once the fighting kicked off, Alexei was the first member of the Imperial Knights to reach out to Duke, and the one who recruited him!

Elucifur had wanted to fight on the side of the humans from the very start of the conflict (as he strongly disagreed with those Entelexeia who wanted to solve the blastia problem once and for all by simply eliminating all humans) but while he had always been fascinated with & loved humans, he was also wise enough to know that most of them would only be frightened & mistrustful if they saw his true form (and while I hc he also had a 'krityan' form like Khroma, he wouldn't have been able to keep up the illusion while fighting, and imo his wasn't nearly as refined as hers); for this reason he & Duke fought independently of the human forces. However, it was impossible to completely avoid all contact, and in one of those battles they were spotted by Alexei (still a lowly captain at that point) who recognised Duke as 'human' and chased after before they could leave the area. Alexei encouraged Duke to join forces with the Imperial Knights (as they were drastically short on fighters strong enough to go up against Entelexeia; even at this point Alexei had an excellent eye for combat talent & he didn't especially care who his fighters were or where he came from as long as they were on the same side). 

Duke had no desire to accept this offer at first (convinced that he was Too Different to ever work alongside humans) but Elucifur thought it was a splendid idea & encouraged him to at least try (as coordination between their forces could only benefit all of them, but also he just thought that Duke should make more friends lmao) so in the end Duke acquiesced. Of course, Duke lacked any kind of identification to prove he was who he claimed to be and the enlistment office couldn't just accept people on good faith (especially since no one had ever heard of him before & he definitely didn't look old enough), but Alexei once again stepped up and personally vouched for Duke, smoothing everything over and insisting that Duke be placed into his own unit. Alexei lacked the high social status of the officers who came from old nobility, but he was highly respected on the battlefield by now and his word counted for a lot; Duke definitely wasn't the only soldier to be given Alexei's blessing like this (actually i just had A Thought, that maybe Flynn's father was another of those war-time promotions & that was a factor in Alexei's later treatment towards Flynn.... but i digress). 

Unsurprisingly, Duke never fit in among the soldiers (tho tbf, didn't make much effort to try); Alexei was the only person who continued to solicit his company, and Duke found that he didn't mind their occasional conversations (as Alexei was one of the only humans he'd met who wasn't visibly bothered by his strange appearance & mannerisms, and who seemed willing to listen to him). They weren't quite friends, exactly, but Alexei definitely had some genuine captain-to-subordinate fondness for Duke and wanted to see him succeed, while Duke had tentatively come to trust him-- as an ally in battle, certainly, and perhaps verging on something deeper and more personal.

It was during the war years that Alexei picked up lots of little scraps of knowledge about Entelexeia & Apatheia & the Geraios Age from Duke (who stubbornly remained a loner despite Elucifur's constant prodding to Make Some Friends); it was never Duke's intention to teach Alexei these things but it also didn't occur to him to hide it, as he had no idea it wasn't common knowledge to most humans (after all, Elucifur & many other elder Entelexeia had been around during times when it was). At the time, Alexei wasn't making any Big Plans, but he knew important information when he heard it and he paid very close attention, absorbing as much of Duke's strange esoteric knowledge as he possibly could (...without appearing too suspiciously interested, as he didn't want to scare Duke off & lose his support as a soldier).

Alexei's observations played a major part in bringing word of Elucifur's true nature back to Emperor Krunos XIV, which in turn led to the imperial order to have Elucifur assassinated just after the war was won; Alexei was likely given this task personally after his rapid rise in rank during the war years, though he drastically underestimated the depth of Duke's devotion (& perhaps even hoped that if Elucifur was removed from the picture then Duke might stay on as a Champion of the Empire). Of course, Duke responded to the assassination by storming the palace, confronted and threatened the aging Emperor, and then disappeared into the wilderness with Dein Nomos. Afterwards, it was Alexei who made the call to scrub Duke's name from the war records (both his status as a 'hero' & that final treasonous confrontation)-- partly because Alexei saw the very real danger for a major panic if word got out that a single man could subdue the entire royal guard & threaten the emperor at swordpoint, and partly to eliminate any evidence that he had been the one who got Duke involved in the first place, but also out of lingering respect & because he knew he could take Duke at his word when Duke stated that he had no desire for any further contact with human society (so he wasn't likely to be a threat, certainly not worth the losses they would sustain if they tried to capture him).

The decade that passed since their last encounter saw Alexei's cynicism towards the system & his ambitions grow exponentially, until he came to believe that change for the better could only be achieved if he wiped out the old leadership entirely and seized power for himself; in the present, Alexei views Duke only as an obstacle to his success and has no compunctions about having him killed by the time he sets the trap at Baction. Duke on the other hand views Alexei only with contempt; he couldn't care less who takes control of the human governments & cities, but he does Very Strongly Oppose basically everything else Alexei is doing (murdering the few remaining Entelexeia to harvest Apatheia; reviving the Hermes Blastia projects & forcing a CotFM to overuse their powers & overstimulating the Aer Krene; raising Zaude; etc) so he arrives at Baction resolved to stop Alexei.

...and it was also Alexei's role in Elucifur's death that left Duke so thoroughly convinced that humans could truly never be trusted, and would never change their ways... a resolve that Yuri cracks, which in turn leaves Duke even more conflicted; he's been here before and he knows how this ends, but there's also something different about Yuri, and what if he's wrong...?

[fontasticcrablettes]

@magicmetslogic replied to your post “I don't know if anyone else is still on Neopets in...”:

Luke, are you playing neopets on the regular?

....​and what if I am?

[just-an-old-blog]

The Tales of Rarepair Exchange is totally to blame for all the Velvet/Estelle brainworms I got that lead into this beast.

Title: One Step Forward

Author: Tis I the Velvet menace and fellow Vesperia writer Magicmetslogic beta read

Fandom: Vesperia/Berseria…that technically takes places in Ray’s setting but that ain’t relevant

Ships/Characters: Velvet/Estelle, Raven, Flynn, Phi shows up for 3 minutes

Chapters/Word count: 16,764 over 6/6 chapters *banshee screech*

Rating: T

Warnings/Content Tags: Starts off pretty light but the later chapters touch up on both characters’ trauma through (brief scene) self-harm, panic attacks, nightmares, and allusions to torture. Basically heavy spoilers for Vesperia so if you know what went down in Act 2 then you’ll probably know what to expect. As for Berseria, the spoilers are more vague aside from the prologue.

Summary/Commentary: A fun little crossover ship that turned into a deep dive…Estelle is paired up with none other than the Lord of Calamity and lighthearted shenanigans end up turning into actual trauma bonding.

**Link:**

One Step Forward

[living-and-awaken]

That's the spirit! @magicmetslogic

[sevi007]

Tales of the Abyss playthrough part uh. 24.

I'm writing a book here!

(It's a picture book no worries)

Huh?

(you wanted to marry him not too long ago, Anise)

GUY! The man!

I mean, he basically just said "he's an idiot, but he's MY idiot" - but that's alright. I could cry right now - and I'm sure Luke could too. What a - well, a guy! Sorry the name is silly! But he's the best! Literally the only one in a whole team who believes in Luke after all this still (which is a little sad, but makes it all the sweeter).

Yes? That's why he is going? Genuine confusion.

And the other Luke is just - what. Because he is a replica, he is nothing? That's a poor choice of words there, Natalia. The past seven years shaped Asch and Luke into extremely different people, which you even commented upon yourself. Luke is his own person, just as Asch is.

(I'm sure she has no ill intentions here, and I am not blaming her here. I'm starting to feel like the idea of a "replica" being a different person from the original is giving the party a hard time to wrap their minds around, especially since they are still angry at Luke for Akzeriuth.)

Lemme hug this man.

Better yet, let LUKE hug this man.

Secret detected! Did Van tell him what exactly? I'm making googley eyes at Guy.

Oh maybe Asch did something to Guy when he was a God-General? But no Guy was already with Luke at the time... It must have been something that happened before the kidnapping, but that would mean Asch could not have done much, he was a kid.

Either he was simply an AWFUL charge to look after for Guy (which seems silly) or the Fon Fabre family and Guy have... I don't know. Blood vendetta between families? Romeo and Juliet situation? XD

Ouch. The party really needs to wrap their minds around the fact that seven years are not simply erased by the entire replica situation. Luke has grown into his own person in those years, while Asch had to face a lot (probably horrible) things and has become a different person than he was.

This is no "hooray we got OUR Luke back!" situation, there's a lot of trauma behind that.

See, this is why I think Natalia cannot be blamed even if she is sometimes callous or unthinking. She is really trying hard to be a good princess who helps the world - not only her own people - but she was sheltered, just like Luke was. It seems Asch was not quite as bad as Luke was, back as a kid, and had his eyes a bit more open, understood a bit more - but they are kids. They mess up. They don't know everything. They can be cruel by saying things without thinking. And these guys especially - they are children forced to carry the weight of a princess' title and a duke-son's title on their shoulders, with all the politics that come with it. That's no easy job!

Oh hell, he IS traumatized.

Great job Van, you fucked not one but TWO teenagers in your care! (Three if we add Tear)

@ahsokaisawesome

@magicmetslogic

[desfraisespartout]

Let's imagine that Damuron did not survive...

And that for a moment that replicas/clones are possible in the world of Tales of Vesperia.

...

The heart blastia project is a bust. Alexei knew that the success rate very low, but he had clung to the hopes that maybe, maybe he would pull through. That he could bring back at least one person from the massacre at Mount Temza.

But he failed. Miserably.

He's ready to throw everything into the fire in a fit of rage. Only then, does he recall a peculiar reading he had stumbled upon during his research on the Hermes's blastia. Something about creation and replication. At first, he had dismissed the book, relegating such theories to lunacy. But now... given his current state of mind... he'd try anything.

Anything.

According to the text, he only needed to a set of data about the original, parts to mimic a body, and a core. The heart blastia would do.

Against all odds, he succeeds. The replica of Damuron lives. But something seems amiss. The man doesn't have any recollection of his self.

...

All in all, an idea came to my mind about possible comparison between Emperor Belos and Hunter's relationship (The Owl House) vs Alexei and Raven/Schwann's. But also, reminded myself of replicas and fomicri from Tales of the Abyss.

Something that would drive Alexei mad is that Schwann would developp a Raven persona, or show signs of, each time. Schwann/Raven would inevitably betray Alexei each time.

I wouldn't put it past Alexei to outright murder Schwann and work with another replica. Each time, tweaking the data set a little more. To make sure he stays obedient. To make sure he never betrays. Schwann ends up being a pale immitation of Damuron.

Or Alexei tempering with Schwann's memory/recollection of certain events.

Anywho, I had to share what I have in mind before I forget. That and the fact that I probably won't have the time to write a fic about it. But Alexei does seem like a nice character to study. And I like how @magicmetslogic portrays him. So, if you see this, I hope this sparks some ideas.